Requiem of the Mourning Bird: Her Hollow Story
by Themulchmeister
Summary: Yumeko Motori and her twin sister die just as a whole life of oppurtunity was ahead of them. But death is where their stories seperate: for one is guided to the content life in Soul Society whilst the other is cast away to the eternal night as a wretched beast - a lowly hollow. It is this story which we will follow...This is the Hollow's story...
1. Chapter 1: Falling Bird

Hello, OC-fic fans. I hope you like OCs because I like writing OCs at the moment. This is a new challenge I'm going down, writing for a female OC (well since I'm a guy and all). Not only that but a female OC hollow rather than a Shinigami which I imagine is more of the trend. This is based on another Bleach OC fic with a similar name and concept. I hope this one will be better written and more successful than my earlier work. So please read on and review, whether you like it or not, I always love feedback and it helps me work out what I need to improve on. Okay enjoy the first chapter of Requiem of the Mourning Bird: Her Hollow Story...

**Chapter 1: Falling Bird**

My name is Yumeko Motori, 18 years old and dead...

But how can I be talking to you right now if I am dead you might ask? Well it all started one unfortunate night. A night which would end my life as I knew it and begin my new life – completely transforming my physical and emotional form.

It still pains me to recall that night which ended my life. I'm sure nobody would like to recall how they were killed – I would imagine that's why we like to assure ourselves in the real world that such a thing is not even possible to begin with; to recall your own death. I mean weren't we all taught in school that after we die we just burn to ashes and put in a box or get fed to the worms and microscopic carnivores of the earth?

Heaven and Hell and other such concepts were thrown out of our concept of life a long time ago. I mean no rational human would really believe in that fairy tale stuff right? At least that's what I thought until that night.

The night me and my twin sister were both murdered...

...

* * *

I was born to the Motori family. Our surname is rather odd when you look at the Kanji it uses: the one for 'mourning' and the one for 'bird'. Our family originated in Edo but were thrown out a long time ago as they were often associated with bad luck. And I can understand why nobody would want to live next door to the 'mourning bird'ses' anyway.

My twin sister's name is Negako. She came out of my mother first so that naturally made her my older sister and guardian. Of course that never meant that she had to be a helpful or caring guardian for that matter.

I would often wonder if our fates were delivered to us the moment we were given our names: my name means 'dream' and I've always had many ambitious yet impossible dreams throughout my short life. My sister's name meant 'hope' – hopes and dreams our parents must have thought when they were blessed with two daughters. More like greed and suffering if you ask me.

Negako was always striving for more attention and praise from our parents. And, compounded with our parents rather traditional view on family, the oldest of us would always be viewed with more favour and regard than her _imouto_, me...

Our grades in school were fairly equal all the way until middle school, yet my older sister would always be selected for both academic and athletic competitions. My elder sister would always get a pat on the head from _otoo-san_, our father, before me. My elder sister would always be the topic of morning gossip among our neighbours and relatives. "I heard the Motori's eldest daughter got another perfect score in her exams," the old ladies down the street would chat about. Even when they saw me walk past in their idle chatter, the way would always ask how Negako was doing -never how _I _was faring in school or life in general.

I soon began questioning why _ane_ was always standing so high on the podium of success and I was just her cold shadow. Eventually I began to question myself, whether it was really the case that I just was not as good as _ane, _my elder sister...I mean we were quite different physically at this stage, puberty hit her like a jackpot so to speak, and her athletic and supreme figure were only topped by her large breasts. I was always going to be the little sister in both age and in the looks department.

Gradually my small circle of friends at school became smaller and smaller as my sister sucked them away like a nasty sponge. Eventually, put off by my own melancholy, the last of my so called friends abandoned me leaving me stranded at the back corner of the classroom, the tiny island of shattered dreams just off the coast to the big prosperous land.

My last year of high school and the all important selection exams were ahead. I felt that if things were going to stay like they had all these years before, then I would probably fail and Negako would pass through to Tokyo University with flying colours and a marching procession behind her. I hated the idea of losing to my sister one more time. So I secretly studied hard both at school and at home. My sister would sometimes check in on my room, suspicious of what I was up to. Gradually I felt a little better and I might even admit a little mischievous, knowing that I was making my proud sister anxious.

Our results came back. I had beaten my sister in every subject. The pressure from mum and dad for her to succeed as usual must have been to much for her and she blew out at the final stint. I had finally beaten my sister at something and I was quite proud of myself...When I read my number amongst the horde of others on the board that day, knowing that I was going to Tokyo University, I was on a high, knowing that I could soar above the shadow which had anchored my life up until now and break free, into the clouds and beyond for a clear future.

But life always has ways of shooting you down. And it wasn't even a few days later that my sister came into my room with a rather fake smile congratulating me for my success. 'I'm so proud of you Yume-chan!' she squeezed me tight, hugging me with both her hands and her enormous breasts. "I'm so sorry I was mean to you all those years," she said in such a squeaky uplifting tone, "I never knew you had it in you to pass the exam. Please let me treat you out to something nice."

If I hadn't already felt so good at this point, I would never have been so stupid as to fall into the vengeful spider's trap. She took me out that evening to a number of places around town. Cafes shopping malls and stalls, all the time she would have this big sunny smile pasted on her face. I would have laughed at her ridiculous mannerism if it wasn't so sad - but it really was getting to the point where I even began to feel sorry for her. Could she really be feeling so remorseful for all these years of treating me like crap? Could she genuinely be trying to make it up to me? Could she honestly be happy for me to have made it to the very University which she was striving for so badly yet failed to make the cut? Surely are all these feeling and words she is saying genuine?

No.

They were stained in black like the core of her wretched heart...

As the sun began setting over Kawasaki, our little outing had brought us to a lookout tower, offering spanning views of the entire shoebox complex that was our world. The view was quite beautiful though, with the golden rays lighting up the horizon like a half eaten pancake, I think I would have shed a tear or two at that moment until...

"So tell me how you did it sis," Negako suddenly said. "Tell me how you cheated the test and got through to Todai instead of me."

When I turned around I saw her face, the same putrid smile was there before but now I could really see the face hidden underneath it. She was truly methodical at that point, snakes should have been flowing out of her hair at that point. "I don't know what you're talking about," I said back to her defensively.

"Spare me the bullshit, how else could you go from high C's to full blown A pluses in less than a year? You damn well cheated and got away with it you little bitch." When she brought out her hand and swiped it across my cheek, the hot pain confirmed to me that my sister's greed would never die at any point in her sad life.

We were up so high – it had to be at least twenty or thirty metres. The railing was so inviting behind my back. I could really do it, I could put her out of her stupid envious misery and live my life freely like those birds in the sky. I should do it...

...I will do it!

And she was even wearing stilettos the poor girl. She was just asking for me to throw her off this damn tower. But I had to get her just a little closer to the edge.

"You were always jealous about how smarter and more athletic I was than you," she continued her sorrowful rant as I plotted how the events would play out in my mind. "But I can't believe you would stoop so low as to cheat your way through that exam. When I tell mum and dad, you're going to be in deep shit for this. I swear I will freaking burn you for what you have done to me!"

_Haha, well in just a moment I'm going to kill you._ My mind was racing a thousand miles an hour at this point. Blood rushing to my brains and pumping my heart so hard it just wanted to explode. I knew what I was about to do was absolutely wrong, but the adrenaline was already commanding my muscles to move in the performance of this tragedy.

"You horrible cow. You little slut, nobody, flat-chested drawer." Her hands were flailing about like one of those inflatable stick men you see at the car yards. Like a swaying tree in a Winter's breeze, I grabbed one of the flailing branches and yanked her towards me. "Hey what are you?-"

And like an evening waltz, I swayed my body forward as I pulled her back, bring her her rather clumsy figure closer to that tiny railing. I caught her shocked eyes at that moment, her jaw gaping in utter disbelief at what her _imouto _was about to do.

But there was something I had not calculated in this ploy. She wasn't going to fall off that easily afterall. Just as her body flung over the rails she managed to grab a hold of my wrist, pulling me to the edge of the railing as her entire body dangled over the edge.

"Are you out of your freaking mind!?" she snapped back at me. "Are you frigging trying to kill me or something?" Even in her current situation she doesn't seem to show any signs of pleading innocence. "Hurry up and pull me back up. Now when Mum and Dad hear about this they'll go completely-"

"NO!" I shouted with such force it made her eyes soften a little. "I'M THROUGH WITH BEING IN YOUR SHADOW! I'M GOING TO LIVE MY LIFE WITHOUT YOU CONSTANTLY PUTTING ME DOWN ANYMORE!"

When she realised how serious I was at that point, her eyes dampened as she made a weak smile. "Yume-chan, you're not seriously gonna-"

"YES I AM!" I spat back down at the two-faced wonder. "You never gave a damn about me and have made suffer my entire life. It ends here!"

"I see..." then I was really surprised at how she reacted. She lowered her gaze and sighed, almost as though she were about to submit defeat at that point. Then I felt her hand tugging even stronger now, pressing my ribs against the railing. "THEN I'M TAKING YOU WITH ME BITCH!"

I struggled to keep my body behind the railing as my sister kept swinging and thrashing her weight about, her stronger physique no match for my smaller frame. My arm felt like it was going to be torn off as I desperately clung onto that railing, tears stinging my eyes. I didn't want die, I didn't even really want to kill her either. Why was everything going so horribly now? If we had just been nicer to each other, this never would have happened.

I felt her hand slide down my wrist an inch or two. She was tiring as well now. But she still had enough fight of her own to keep pulling me beyond that railing. I was now reduced to coiling my left arm around the railing my two feet precariously balanced over the edge.

I could see the redness in her face that she was determined to see me out too. Her teeth were gnashing like a rabid hound, salivating for her prey. She looked like a real monster at that point – yet I was the one who wanted to killer her first...

My right arm slipped. Only the grip of my hand could keep me from suffering a similar fate to my sister. Only this hand would offer me a chance to go to Tokyo University, to gain a career, maybe have a family and enjoy a peaceful life.

I was so determined not to die, but my body had its own limits.

Then I saw him. The shadowy figure walking towards us on the viewing platform. His entire body cloaked and his face obscured. I was almost entranced by his appearance as he just casually strolled over the edge, looking down at my sister before turning his attention to me. "Sorry, but I gotta do this."

_Do what? _I wondered. _He's going to save us isn't he!?_

Producing a shining blade out of his cloak, raising it high above the evening sky, he spoke in a mournful tone. "May your fates be sealed with the edge of this blade."

And that was when the man brought down his sword, cutting off my hand and cutting off my last line of life. My body had never felt lighter than it did at that moment, the moment me and my sister were flying...Flying and falling...Flying and falling...

If only we had wings, then we could have saved each other.

Now we were both dead. Our coffins sealed with the impact of the hard concrete below.

Falling...

Falling...

Darkness...

Nothing...

* * *

Yumeko's life is already over by the end of the first chapter. Could this be the end already? What could possibly be in store for her now? Please read onto the next chapter and find out! Don't forget to please leave a review. No matter how long or short, no matter how good or bad, they all motivate me to write more.

P.S I also hope to come up with a story cover for my new OC very soon!


	2. Chapter 2: Reaper of Death

**Sorry but I did take most of this chapter from the original version. I still hope it captures the same sort of general mood as the original. Don't forget to review! Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 2: Reaper of Death**

My chest hurts, it's hard to breathe. The air is thick like syrup. What is going on right now? I can't even stand up the pain is so unbearable.

I open my eyes and find myself in a pool of blood. The smell of death has rekindled my memory: I had just fallen off the tower. I should be dead right.

In a terrified panic I pat around my body, feeling for any broken bones or serious wounds. My breathing settles when I realise – strangely enough, that I am almost completely unscathed from the fall.

I look back up at the imposing ledge of the tower. How could I have fallen from such a height with barely even a scratch on my skin?

But there's still blood on my skin, lots of it. I soon realise it's not mine, I follow the trail with my eyes until I find, laying face down on the wet concrete; with her once neat black hair stained in blood, covering her head like a sheet to hide the worst of the gore...Her favourite jacket and jeans now torn by her own splintered bones...I find...

My own body!...

Dead...

I panic again, scrambling on my four limbs to search for my sister. It doesn't take long for me to find her. Negako was only lying metres away from my body, her cold dead hand still clinging tight around mine in her rigor mortis.

Still in my shock and panic, quite natural for someone who has just seen their own corpse, I scream out for anyone nearby to come help. I cry out until my lungs ache and my chest compresses even more. Some people having their evening stroll eventually spot our bodies and call the police. All the while I continue screaming at them. Alas my pleas are unheard.

I scream louder and louder for their attention. I still feel like I'm dying but I manage to force myself on two feet and limp towards them. Each step feels like I'm walking with two cinder blocks attached to my feet, eventually I can no longer support myself and collapse into a man standing nearby. I feel myself push against him as I fall and he steps back looking quite surprised. But the seems to be looking through me rather than at me. In a few more seconds he simply shrugs his shoulders and returns to the scene, talking to the police and paramedics when they finally arrive and collect the bodies – our bodies.

The bodies which once belonged to me and my _ane._

"PLEASE WHY WON'T YOU HELP ME!" I begin to lose all sense of control and stumble, stepping on a chain that must been left behind. When I step on the chain I feel my chest being pulled again, draging me back down to the hard earth.

Returning to my sense a little, I study this chain, grabbing the links and following them up until it ends at my chest. This must have been the source of my pain until now. When I try tugging at it, it only serves to hurt my chest even more. It's like somebody has pierced this thing around my heart. How could anyone even perform such a procedure without-

"You still haven't fathomed it yet," a voice. "The fact that you're no longer alive that is."

I turn towards the rough casual speaking voice and meet a man in a black kimono. Though his hair is neatly cropped, he has a rather cheeky grin on his tanned skin and carries something over the back of his shoulders the way a delinquent would carry a wooden sword.

I catch the shimmering edge of the object on his shoulders, a katana. An authentic steel katana, authentic enough to cut...and to kill...

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna cut you with this thing 'ere." He talks with an odd accent, like an Okinawan. "I'm a Shinigami you see, I'm 'ere to send ya' to Soul Society."

A Shinigami? This ruffian fellow is a Shinigami? A Death God? "So is that where my sister is right now?"

"Hagh?" he drops one side of his jaw.

"Soul Society," I say quietly. "Is that where you took Negako-neesan."

"Hmmm..." Scratching his bristly hair he recalls, "oh yeah, I did just perform Konso on a girl 'round your age a few minutes ago; must've been her."

Relieved I walk over and tug the man's flowing hakama. "Please sir, could you send me to Soul Society so I can meet her right away?" I'm still so shocked that things have come to this. Perhaps if I can at least make amends with her in our second life, I will have at least made some of a difference in our relationship.

"Right'o kid, there's no need for us to waste time with formalities and whatnot anymore." He takes his sword off his shoulder and point's it just off my right shoulder, making me flinch, "Relax, this'll be over in no time at all." In a rather flashy display, he throws his sword in the air and catches it, the base of his sword now looking down at me like a dark eye. "I just gotta tap this on your head and you're off to Soul Society."

As unfortunate as death has been I'm now looking forward to the prospect of having a heaven-like afterlife. In the hope of seeing my sister and apologising for all those lost years, I eagerly press my head forward ready for the ritual.

When he hesitates for a moment I blink and ask him, "what's the matter?"

"This is odd," his face becomes paler, I can tell something has made him uneasy. "I'm not sure about this..."

"About what..." I'm beginning to get agitated.

"Sorry kid but I can't perform Konso on you...in fact..." He put one of his clammy hands on my chest, gripping the chain attached to my heart, then stretching it towards him he slashed his sword down on the chain, cutting off all but a few centimetres.

"Wait, why did you need to do that first?" I ask him still quite naive about all these new concepts being thrown at me with every heartbeat. But his once jovial appearance has reverted to utter disgust.

"There's something not quite right about you kid...It ain't evil, but it's nowhere near good either...Soon your chain will erode and you'll either die in the process or worse still, become something we Shinigami loath most – a lowly hollow."

I become more and more stressed as he turned heel. "What do mean a hollow? What's a hollow?"

He did not answer me and just kept walking further into the evening shadows. "PLEASE ANSWER ME!" I scream with the top of my lungs. "WHY WON'T YOU TAKE ME TO MY SISTER!"

The police and paramedics have taken my body away, but my spirit has been left behind, abandoned by the one person who looked as though he could have helped me. Needless to say, the feeling of complete and utter helplessness had returned. Defeated I collapse on the cold, damp cement and form a pool of tears around my cheek.

_Okaa-san...Otoo-san...Nee-san..._Everyone...nobody has ever cared for me in my 18 years of life...And now noone will even be around for me in the next life. I was used to being alone, but never like this before. I may as well be in hell right now; nobody can see or interact with me, I'm separated by an invisible wall of silence. The Gods must be teasing me right now, leaving me here on Earth only to suffer for an eternity of loneliness and rejection.

Why Negako. Why did you make me go to the brink of killing you to? Why have I been suffering for all these years until now? What point was there in it all? Why can't I escape it even in death?

I can no longer see myself flying like the birds in the sky.

I am left to grieve over my own death for nobody else will. A mourning bird with broken wings.

...Yet the suffering was far from over...

As though my heart was being pulled apart again, the pain returns, only it is a hundred times more intense than before. The pain arrived with such a jolting force I nearly bit my tongue, arching my back and gagging in shock. I reach for the chain and feel something bite my finger off, I discover a ferocious little mouth attached to the end of the chain, gnawing away at my lost finger before returning to the chain – devouring itself. The loss of my finger though is like a mere surface wound compared to the real pain that's coming from my chest.

"AAAARRRRGGGHHHH!" I writhe on the ground in tremendous, unimaginable pain. My heart literally feels like it is being torn apart as I dig my fingernails into the concrete to abate the flashes of pain somehow. My nails break off and I'm left grinding mere skin against the pavement, I grind so hard that I am down to bone. Bits of nail and skin decorate the bloody lines I've left on the concrete. But the pain still won't go down. I bite down on another finger, opposite to the unfortunate appendage eaten by the chain earlier. A sudden jolt of pain strikes me so hard that my jaw locks shut, now I'm down to four on both hands.

With blood spouting from two stumps in my hands and a burning heart that will go in any minute I screech at the top of my lungs so that any deity could answer my desperate pleas for mercy.

_'AAAAGGGGGHHHH!'_

Then it stops...

I pause for a moment, unsure why the pain has seemingly disappeared. Not even my hands hurt anymore. What have I done now.

I inspect my chest, expecting to see my little chain. But it has completely dissolved and left a large cavity where my heart should be...should be..._should be..._

_Oh dear god where is my heart!?_

I freak out and tap my chest and back, searching for a pulse. I press hard but I feel nothing from that region that I had taken for granted. All that remained was a distinct and ugly hole which peered into an infinite black world of nothingness.

"SOMEONE HELP ME!" My screams only trigger another bout of pain. Only this time the pain – as excruciating as it may seem – is actually giving me a strange sense of euphoria. I almost feel like I'm getting stronger. Something is welling up deep inside my body. However it is only when a thick white substance spews out and coalesces around my body that I realise what true fear feels like

Perhaps this is what that guy meant by becoming a 'lowly hollow'. I'm definitely feeling nothing around my chest region and nothing but pain and despair have greeted me since this afterlife. Perhaps this is what hell was supposed to be like – no even in hell, you know what kind of torture is going to happen next. One moment I feel higher than life itself, the next moment oppresses me with the amount of pain not even an animal would be allowed to endure.

White continues to pour around my body like a cement. Now my face is beginning to be concealed by this bony material. My vision is reduced to two small slits as my horizon quickly fades once again to darkness.

…

* * *

Some time later in the morning...I awaken into a new world. Everyone seems to be going about their daily routine, oblivious to my presence. In a way I feel angry almost vengeful at these heartless individuals who don't respond to my long and unnecessary suffering.

I need to teach them a lesson. I need...to...hunt...

* * *

Suffering in both her material life and the next, Yumeko finds herself awakened into a world similar to her old one but different. What has come about as a result of her painful transformation? What is it which she needs to 'hunt'? Will her years of rejection turn into something far more sinister? Please read onto the next chapter to find out!


	3. Chapter 3: Descent into Darkness

**This chapter's all original off the top of my head, but, well, you'll see how it goes anyway. Enjoy you little hungry hollows!**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Descent into Darkness**

Look at them all. Walking around their little tracks like ants to their nest. I'm sick of the way they just walk right past and ignore my plight. They have no idea that someone had died here last night. My body has already been swept off the street, my blood and brains mopped up and erased from the concrete. Me and my sister have both been dealt with by the cleaners, now nobody has to worry about us again.

I'm still here though.

I'm still stuck here in my own death.

Why has noone bothered to look at me, acknowledge my existence. I'm truly nothing to them now...I feel so empty inside. I wish I could just jump up there and kill myself again...Maybe then I wouldn't have to endure this pain...This pain which hurts more than anything physical. You haven't known what Hell is until you've realised that noone is around for you anymore.

I feel so heavy yet empty as the same time. My head is weighing me down like a ton of bricks yet my stomach and body feel so empty, almost like my entire innards have been scooped out and left an empty shell behind.

My limbs are heavy too. I feel like I've gained twice my body weight, yet my stomach is burning for sustenance. I'm so empty yet swollen, so bloated yet hungry, so sad...yet angry...

I'm angry at these hordes of content faces, blind in their own world of greed and self-interest. If they could see me right now, I wonder what they would say or how they would react? How is one supposed to react when confronted with a dead person? How can such a thing even happen?

But I'm so angry...And I'm so hungry...My anger is fuelling my hunger and likewise my hunger is fuelling the flames inside me. These people in their little tracks, oblivious to my suffering.

I can't think straight like this. I need to stop this emptiness from eroding my body. This endless torture which is ripping through my body like a thousand tiny chainsaws must cease. Only then can I have a clear mind about what I must do from here.

I'm so hungry...

I'm just so damn hungry...

No, hungry is not even the right words for this feeling ripping through my body. If only there was a word to describe this sheer brutal emptiness which is expanding and piercing my body. An expanding emptiness...How can anyone even comprehend such a feeling?

Of course no one can. Not any of these fools at least...Not any of these ignorant ants who just walk about and fulfil their duties of the Queen. Noone here could possibly comprehend such a horrible feeling.

How disgusting they are...I should make them feel at least some of the pain I am feeling...

Wait a second! What the hell am I saying? How have I reached such a loathing of others? Something's definitely changed. I'm not the same Yumeko who just died last night.

I must be losing the plot. I was never raised to hate or wish pain on another person. Despite all those things my sister had done.

_**~But you wanted to kill her that night didn't you?~**_

A voice! Did someone just speak to me? No that's right, I'm invisible to these people aren't I?

I'm still so very hungry though...

* * *

The daylight drags past my horizon, stretching over to sunset as the ants depart the nests one more time, back on their little tracks of life. I've been stuck here all day, unable to find my tracks...they've all been smeared by a wet finger of justice. I'm as hopeless as an insect without legs. I'm a bird clipped of its wings and chained to the ground.

The passage of time has done nothing to ease the pain of loneliness and hunger ravaging my body. It's only gotten slowly worse. Slowly, getting more and more hungry...Slowly getting heavier and emptier.

I can't bear this any longer. If noone will hear my anguish then I will _make _them!..

His name is Yamada. I can only tell from his name tag. He is probably just like any other Yamada or any other businessman who walks past this place every day. He looks like your typical model Japanese citizen, short and neat black hair. He wears his everyday Brown variety suit and tie with pride.

He's just a regular soul.

He's going to be my first meal...

Yes. I think the hunger has in fact cleared my mind of all those doubts I had before. I know what I must do now. My body has been telling me for the last twelve hours. There is only one way to ease this hunger and fill the void inside me.

He would make a perfect fit to my stomach. Motivated, my body finally wills me to move forward, like a baby hatching out of its egg and testing the world for the first time. This is my new world, this is my new life. My purpose at the moment is simply to fill up...To survive...

To prey...

I shuffle along the ground with my elephant sized feet. My arms sway by my side like large pendulums. I shuffle closer and closer until I intercept this Yamada businessman's tracks.

He stops. Why does he stop? He rubs his head confused but not too bothered. Can he see me I wonder. No it seems he cannot, he is looking beyond me rather than at me. But he definitely felt something from my presence. Does that mean...I can interact with these living humans?

One thing I've noticed is just how small everyone has gotten now. I'm looking down at this Yamada as though I were peering from my bedroom balcony. I really have swelled up since last night. And yet all I can think about is how I'm about to eat – yes, _eat_ – this man...This living human being with a loving home and a family.

As he skirts around my body, I strafe his way, blocking him off again. Confused and this time a little more frustrated, he shakes his head and takes a larger diversion around this invisible wall. I stop him again, and again, and again. He gets even more angry at this mysterious barrier which is denying him a chance to advance; swaying his briefcase towards the invisible thing which is mocking him.

I lift my heavy leg, catching a glimpse of it for the first time and kick him to the ground with what appears to be a a talon with the thickness of a tree trunk.

His anger soon chills down to fear. Fear of the unknown force that is haunting him. I can already taste his fear, trickling down the back of his neck...It tastes quite sweet actually.

Poor naive Yamada. If it were any other day I would have gladly offered you my hand and helped you up. Poor, poor Yamada.

I stretch out an arm, quite long but very slender compared to my strange feet. I caress his chest as it rises and falls rapidly. I can feel his heartbeat – for some reason it feels so nostalgic.

I can sense his fear as he feels my doll-like hands grip around his chest and lift him off the ground. Bystanders are already catching on to this man's strange behaviour – but now they have nothing in their logic bank to explain this...A man levitating off the ground is inevitably going to stir some unwanted attention.

Yamada screams; they all scream in their confusion. Slowly, I lift his entire body closer towards my head. I think I could fit him in with one bite.

Well, maybe two and a bit.

The sight of a half a flying man's body vanishing into a bloody nothingness has now sent everyone into a panic. As soon as Yamada's flesh travels down my gullet, I'm refreshed, the emptiness is gone. I'm feeling a sort of bliss much like the pleasure of sex.

I don't think I could finish this meal off. Maybe just two thirds of a serving shall do. I discard the two legs and half a forearm as they hit the ground with a wet thud. A young woman just happens to be standing nearby as her office blouse is stained in Yamada's blood. She covers her hands over her face and screams. Now that I look at her, she looks so tempting for an after dinner mint. Maybe just a nibble.

She doesn't scream anymore...

Two siblings died here last night. Two more innocent souls have followed a similar fate. Their crimson soup paints the pavements, offering me a giant pool to gather my new reflection.

After what I went through last night and after this heavy emptiness I've endured today – somehow I'm not surprised at this form which presents itself to me in the blood of my meal. Bird-like talons support my swollen white belly, complemented by rather long and stringy arms, my neck extends and curves over my back as I meet a large hook shaped head. I can't meet this form's face as the head almost coils within itself, constantly forced to look down at the wretched earth, never able to see the unreachable sky. I blink and discover two black beads attached to the top of this bone like projection sticking out of the neck. If this was supposed to be a bird, it should have been put down ages ago...A bloated belly; withered, wingless arms and a spinal structure which makes basic tasks near impossible. I'm starting to wonder how I could even open my mouth and eat.

Just for the sake of answering my own troubling questions, I try and find my jaw and loosen it, the bony coil unfurls itself like a proboscis as a thin dark cone shaped cavity opens to the world. A beak, that is the closest thing I can equate this object too.

And now that this form of mine has opened its jaw, something else has become visible. Hidden at the base of this swan-like neck, just at the top of the belly where it narrows slightly, a distinctly large black hole appears. A hole where my chest should be...A hole which peers into an eternal void. A hole which – no matter how much I eat – can never be filled again.

A hole where my heart had been ripped out that fateful day.

I am no longer Yumeko Motori...This is who I am – no – this is what I am now...

* * *

With her new form revealed, how will Yumeko carry on living the life of constant hunger? How much of her humanity can she preverse as a monster? Can there really be any other purpose for her to struggle and survive if it requires taking the lives of innocents? Find out as you read onto the next chapter!


	4. Chapter 4: Stain your Self

**Again. This has been another one of my storiews I've left on the backburner for a while. Please forgive the delay with this update. It might be a while before the next one so maybe read the original ROTEN to tie you over for a while. For now though, please enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Stain your Self**

Ugly.

Wretched.

Abhorrent.

Corrupted.

Grotesque.

Monstrous.

Those would be words I would be using more often than not from now on. Words that I would be forced to describe myself with from now on. Words that people would surely cry out – among some more colourful vocabulary – if they could see me.

Although I am a feaster of human souls, those creatures I once acquainted myself with are blessed in a way. For they will never have to confront the horrid menace that will rip apart their existence and snatch their life. It will be a painful, but swift death of ignorance. Autopsies would label it under 'spontaneous body rupture' or merely 'unknown.'

I wish I could weep at what I am now.

But the tears no longer shed. Not when hunger drives my will every day.

How many had I eaten now? It sounds so trivial now. Humans were petty things to be eaten now. They provided me with sustenance and filled the empty hole where my heart had abandoned my cause. After Yamada and the woman, I had my fill from an oafish businessman leaving a bar. I would have called him 'Yopparai' for his drunken totter – his real name mattered to me no more. Yopparai filled my bloated belly for the remainder of that first night.

By the second day I had taken three more lives – or rather three more meals. A pair or old men jogging in their early morning routine gave me a much needed breakfast hit. Then I had to wait until sunset for my next opportunity to feed; that came in the form of a delinquent spraying graffiti under a lonesome bridge. Even that boy didn't really deserve my punishment, but he had been chosen as prey for that night.

The more I ate, the less I began to feel guilt or remorse for what I had done. Do people really shed tears for the cow they ate last night? Do they build a shrine in honour for the chicken or pork that was sacrificed in order to fill their bloated stomachs? Do they ever think twice before picking that lobster in the window – wrapping his fate within the acids of their stomachs? I doubt it.

That's what humans – or perhaps more accurately – their souls, had been demoted to for me. These two-legged cattle roaming in their train-tracks of life, were the livestock ready and at my disposal like a gigantic platter. A grotesque and gluttonous way to put them but alas that was their reality, a reality only I was unfortunate to know.

By the third night I had eaten five more. By the fourth night eight. By the fifth night ten had featured on my platter. By a weeks passing, I had just about devoured enough to fill a community hall.

These sort of figures would be considered a massacre in the eyes of the concerned public. But they had no idea that all these mysterious and often violent looking deaths were all connected by the thread of my drool.

What the hell was I saying? This was how I thought and reacted now. A blood-lusting killer, a senseless cannibal.

But I am a beast. I am a behemoth that walks the nights. This was my punishment handed down by the Shinigami. Forever caged inside this form, cursed to live and feed on the lives of innocents. Perhaps those legends about river monsters that suck on the souls of children were not so fanatical after all.

By the close of the second week, I stopped counting.

…

The hole in my heart was persecuting me with pain. I knew that meant it was time to go foraging again for more souls.

One of the things I began to notice through my unconscious playing with food was that I could extract the souls from humans before eating them. This saved a rather violent looking death for the human and prevented the otherwise less desirable scenario of a panic-stricken public. Once I had mastered the technique with my bone-thin, probe-like claws I could at least offer my meal enough respect of keeping their physical body relatively intact through death. Of course I had robbed them of the pleasures of an afterlife, much like the one _onee-san _is surely enjoying, but this was as much compromise as my soul-addicted self could offer for now.

That was, until I met another creature who was looking for souls.

The hollow had a spiny body which rode all the way down to a legless tail. His upper body was much broader than his lower parts, and had thick, grey, tendon like arms. Whilst this creature was as wretched and monstrous as myself, at least his bony white face seemed more conceptual: pentagonal shaped with a sharp pointed nose and tubular white dreadlocks for hair I imagine. A lower jaw stretched from underneath his mask-like face and revealed a pair of tusks. How he could physically contain those long and precarious instruments was something only an expert of our kind could know. But as he was yet the only other 'lowly hollow' I had come across, I was still very much in the dark about these creatures

He slithered around on his tail, like a standing snake, searching the streets for some delicious souls. As difficult as it was with this bloated form, I tried to remain concealed from his sight as he ventured into the sleepy suburbs of Kanagawa, finding a soul that would fill his empty chest for one more night.

There's that biological principle where the prey who dwell at the bottom of the food chain are numerous and that their predators reduce in number until you reach the apex predator – the king who sits atop the food chain alone. I wonder just how many of us hollow even exit if this rule applies to us? If we're born from those humans whose souls have been left to rot on earth, then surely there must be a lot of us. But what happens to the humans we eat? Do they get digested, replenished and returned to the ecosystem of living and dead souls? If we just keep eating humans won't we eventually run out of stock before they can breed more of their kind ('their kind'...I suppose I really am no longer human...)

I always wondered if lions eat other lions in their pride when there are no more gazelles. Or if wolves savaged each other to get through a harsh and desolate winter.

What would a hollow taste like anyway?

His back is curled down as he takes up his meal. His vertebrae stare at me like a row of threatening needles. I guess this creature had evolved with a useful defence mechanism.

But I could see the remainder of his back is made of supple flesh. I could use my weight to my advantage and take down this lanky beast.

With this, I was living not only in a world beyond mankind, but a social order beyond mankind's. This was the world of 'hunt or be hunted', 'kill or be killed', 'devour or be devoured'.

Why then, had I not anticipated that this prey would turn around and, unlike the human fodder, fight back?

Swipe.

"_**GRAOW**_!"

Shit.

The creature had some strength contained in those arms as he now had me pinned to the ground, his jaw dislocating and lowering with drool oozing from his tusks. The beasts drool felt hot against my deformed equivalent of a face. I cringed in irony at this monster.

He had just as much as much stake to live and thrive in the jungle of undead as I had. He was pumping as much adrenaline through those mutated veins as I was. Whatever his cause or purpose – it surely must have been as just as mine.

No wait...

_Negako-nee-san..._

My sister...

I still.

Just for a little longer I must...

Kick.

Push.

Leap.

Thrust.

Stab.

Wrench.

Kill.

Three moves, three pulses of blood throughout my body. Three agonising glimpses, teetering between prosperity and destruction.

I had won my meal for tonight.

But as I peeled back that shell of a mask and scooped out this hollow's remains with my proboscis-like beak, I knew that the next night, or the following nights from here on out, may produce a different outcome.

It was for this reason that I enjoyed my dinner tonight. The soul of a hollow seemed to nourish that empty void far more than a meagre human soul ever could.

If I had any more doubts about my form, they were sealed within my stomach by dawn.

"Well, I thought I was in for a double job today but I guess you already took care of that half."

My most satisfying meal had only just finished before I was interrupted by a human voice. But humans cannot see me, which means that voice must belong to-

I turn and discover black robes flowing in the morning breeze. As the glint of a katana invades my eye, the man who sent me to Hell offers me a winking smile.

"Yo! Looks like you turned into that lowly hollow afterall, Miss."

* * *

Yumeko has devoured what will surely not be her first and only hollow...That all of course depends on what this latest encounter has in store for her. Will the man who cut her soul chain and drove her to become a ravaged devourer of souls - the 'lowly hollow' - be any more forgiving for the Mourning Bird this time around? Find out in the next chapter!


End file.
